The purpose of this research is to provide a better understanding of customer experience as to how it could be used to contribute to experience-based design in the context of online retail services. The review of literature suggested that a good customer experience may bring various benefits to service organisations. However, many of the existing studies appear to be focused on traditional face-to-face services rather than e-services. Moreover, although it is proposed that services should be designed based on the customer experience, little literature was available to suggest how it could be done. This research studied three key areas in the online retail service context, the features offered on retail websites, the activities performed by customers, and the customers’ perceived influences of each feature on their experience and repurchase intention. Each of these areas was investigated by an individual study using different data collection methods and data sources. Study 1 investigated the retail website features by analysing 60 retail websites. Study 2 enquired the online customer activities by interviewing 52 university students. Study 3 researched each retail website feature’s perceived influences on customer experience and repurchase intention by surveying 1680 university students and 233 customers of an online retailer. The studies identified twenty retail website features (e.g. search box, filter, and express checkout), four online customer activities (i.e. Search, Compare, Checkout, and Enquiry), and provided evidence which demonstrated a correlation between customer experience and repurchase intention. By performing a Principle Component Analysis on data collected in Study 3, it was found that some of the retail website features appear to influence customer experience (and repurchase intention) in similar ways. In order to identify the similarities of the features with similar influences, analysis was undertaken by linking retail website features with their associated online customer activities. The result suggested that there are four types of retail website features that appear to influence customer experience (and repurchase intention) differently: i.e. optional automatic features (e.g. enable customers to choose whether or not to save addresses and payment details for future use), non-optional automatic (e.g. automatically suggest alternative or additional products), optional non-automatic features (e.g. enable customers to browse categories), and features involve real person interaction (e.g. enable customers to chat with customer service agent on the website). Although all the four types of features appear to have positive influences on customer experience (and repurchase intention), it seems that the optional non-automatic features have the most positive influences, and the features involves real person interaction have the least positive influences. However, the result showed that there are no clear differences between the influences on customer experience of the optional automatic features and the non-optional automatic features. This research has provided a new perspective on e-services. It suggested that there are different types of service features that tend to influence customer experience (and repurchase intention) in different ways. It implies that e-services could be more effectively designed by focusing on the features offered on retail websites, in particular by offering optional non-automatic features.

Retaining customers has become extremely crucial in the online environment due to high competition levels. Although the role of switching barriers has been examined quite extensively in the offline marketing environment, their presence and importance in predicting customer retention are poorly understood in the online retail context. This thesis aims to contribute towards a better understanding of the nature, dimensions and consequences of customer-perceived switching barriers in the context of pure-play online retailing. It also investigates the role of online switching barriers to influence customer retention in this context. Based on the theory of social exchange, a framework depicting the interrelationships among perceived switching barriers, satisfaction, loyalty and habitual repurchase are proposed. Two categories of switching barriers are examined, namely, perceived switching costs and attractiveness of available alternatives. The research framework predicts the main effects, indirect effects and moderating influences of these switching barriers. The data were collected through self-administered questionnaires from over 550 customers of pure-play online retailers serving the United Kingdom market. In general, the strategy for assessing the psychometric properties of the measurements is divided into two parts: measurement model calibration and measurement model validation. These involve Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Multi-group CFA. All proposed hypotheses are tested using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Furthermore, the orthogonalisation approach is utilised to test for moderation effects in the model. Five dimensions of online perceived switching costs are identified: learning costs, search and evaluation costs, uncertainty costs, brand relationship loss costs and artificial costs. With respect to the alternative attractiveness construct, three dimensions are identified: retailer indifference, alternative awareness and alternative preference. The findings confirm the importance of customer-perceived switching barriers in predicting customer retention with respect to pure online retailers. This finding challenges the notion that customer-perceived switching costs are insignificant in influencing online purchase decision making due to the open architecture of the internet market. Most importantly, there are three novel and interesting findings in this study that add to the body of literature: first, the ‘catalyst’ role of online perceived switching costs in precipitating and strengthening the influence of satisfaction on habitual repurchase; second, the ‘neutralising’ role of perceived switching costs in offsetting the influence of attractive alternative on habitual repurchase; and third, the mediating role of loyalty in the relationship between alternative attractiveness and habitual repurchase. Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are also provided.

Although there is quite a rich literature relating to competitive innovation there is relatively little relating to technological collaboration. However, ignoring collaborative possibilities may result in overestimation of the importance of selfinnovation. This thesis is therefore mainly concerned with the determinants of collaboration in innovation, taking both a theoretical and an empirical approach. The empirics relate to the manufacturing industry in a Chinese region. The thesis is particularly innovative in emphasising how collaboration costs will be shared when collaboration occurs. We provide a game theoretic exploration of the decisions of firms on whether to compete or collaborate in the generation and adoption of a sequence of new technologies. Different from the models proposed by Vickers, who concentrates upon process innovation and a two-strategy (innovation or do nothing) set, our game theory model emphasises product innovation and either a three-strategy set (innovation, collaboration, and do nothing), or a fourstrategy set (innovation, collaboration, imitation and do nothing). In particular, MATLAB programming is employed for generating the equilibrium solution for each strategy set. We found that the relationship between imitation and collaboration and collaboration cost is not univariate. It depends upon the market type and various market characteristics, such as technology gap, technology level, the product substitution index, transaction costs and the discount rate of price sensitiveness. The results also show that the elasticity of collaboration opportunity with respect to transaction costs in a persistent dominance market is much greater than in an action reaction market. By using data on manufacturing in a Chinese region from 2005 to 2007, derived from the China Innovation Survey and the Annual Corporate Financial Survey, we empirically explored innovation and collaboration patterns. Three factors, innovative ability, absorptive capacity, and catching up capacity were proposed to positively affect both innovation and collaboration. This led to six hypotheses, which were tested using a number of econometric models encompassing selection bias, timing, and dynamics issues. The major finding from the empirical models suggests that innovative ability, absorptive capacity and catching up capacity all impact significantly and positively on collaboration, whilst innovation is positively related only to absorptive capacity. Also, we found that collaboration cost may increase with R&D, employees‘ education, the technology gap and collaboration cost in previous periods, but decrease with transaction cost, patents held, the technology level and perceived price. The thesis makes three contributions. Theoretically, our game theory model not only extends the understanding of the impacts of collaboration possibilities and collaboration cost in dynamic game theory, but also clarifies the impacts of transaction costs and imitation (and thus intellectual property rights (IPR)) on the outcome. Empirically, by introducing new data our work is the first to investigate collaboration patterns and collaboration cost sharing strategies in a mid-income level developing country. Last but not least, using MATLAB animation programming to simplify the calculation process of the game theory equilibrium may be considered as a methodological contribution.

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This thesis employs the CGE approach to appraise three distinctive issues. Using hypothetical data, Essay 1 estimates how customs union outcomes are sensitive to market size and competitiveness. Further, common external tariffs are adjusted to ensure necessarily welfare-improving outcomes, thereby completely eliminating trade diversion. The results confirm that members’ gains are proportional to the union size, and the degree of market competition significantly alters the welfare outcome. Once common external tariffs are endogenised, members gain less while the whole world gains more as non-members become unaffected by trade diversion. Essay 2 assesses the FTAs Thailand has reached with Japan, China, India, Australia and New Zealand. The model constructed in Essay 1 is extended to accommodate the GTAP 6.0 database. It explicitly determines commodity market competition by sector and labour market paradigm by skill level to better reflect economic reality. Among these FTAs, JTEPA is the best, whilst TNZCEPA is the least beneficial FTA for Thailand. The gains from bilateral FTAs are trivial compared to those from the groupings that include ASEAN. Overall, trade diversion is offset by trade creation, thus the world finds all of the Thailand’s FTAs welfare-improving, albeit marginal. Essay 3 evaluates tax issues for India. It investigates the implications of domestic tax hikes tailored for the rebalancing of government revenue after an FTA among ASEAN, India, China and Japan. Income tax emerges as most effective, whereas production tax appears as least favourable. However, once taking into account the existence of untaxable economic activities, the most benign options measured by real output become consumption, production, income, and factor input taxes, respectively. Hence, the introduction of the substitution elasticity between taxable and untaxable goods largely alters the outcomes, and the informal sector ought not to be neglected if the government is to gauge true effects of domestic tax tools.

The main objective of this research is to increase academic understanding as well as provide managerial implications in relation to the determinants of the levels of web adoption for marketing purposes by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Egypt. Web adoption is specifically defined in this research as the ownership of a website to communicate and/or deliver travel services to a target market. Providing facilities for inquiry, reservation, communication and booking are examples of adoption of the web to provide travel services. This research is thus interested in how the web is being used to interact with customers. Additionally, the levels of adoption represent the different levels that SMEs go through in their adoption process starting with not owning a website to being a simple adopter to being a sophisticated adopter. Non-adopters do not own a web site. Simple adopters own web pages that have facilities for information provision and communication whereas sophisticated adopters own web pages that have facilities for online booking and completing a full transaction online. It is worth noting that the levels of adoption are interrelated and are not static but are part of a process of eEvolution. This research provides an empirical contribution by studying the tourism sector as an example of a service industry and investigating the relative importance of the factors that determine the different levels of web adoption by SMEs in the context of a developing country. In order to achieve this objective, the research integrates existing theories in order to develop a conceptual framework for the determinants of Web adoption in the tourism sector. Besides Roger’s model of innovation adoption, the Resource-based view of the firm, a theory that deals specifically with firm resources and capabilities, is used to provide valuable information about the firm-specific factors that are thought to have an influence on innovation adoption. The model developed in this research is based purely on existing research and it integrates different theoretical perspectives. In addition, the researcher empirically tests this framework using both qualitative and quantitative data from travel agents in Egypt. This research is divided into three main parts. The first part (chs. 2 &3) introduces the literature where the concept of Internet marketing is presented and the key themes of research on Internet marketing are discussed. A literature review on Internet adoption by firms is then presented and the gaps in literature highlighted. The key literature includes defining the web as an innovation and organizational adoption of innovation. The different ways in which innovation adoption has been studied are discussed and a classification of the different factors influencing innovation adoption is made. A review of the existing research on the factors influencing technological innovation adoption by organizations is then provided. Finally, Internet adoption including the web by SMEs is discussed. The main gaps identified are lack of research on SMEs adoption of the web from a level perspective (i.e. distinguishing between use for communication versus use for transactions), lack of research on innovation adoption in developing countries, too much focus on consumer adoption in comparison to organizational adoption of innovations, shortage of research on innovation adoption from a level perspective and a need to identify the critical factors that affect each level of adoption. A conceptual framework (ch.4) is then presented, based on integrating existing theories and literature, and a series of hypotheses derived. The second part starts by discussing the tourism sector in Egypt (ch.5) which is selected to be the research context and then outlines the methodology (ch.6). This research relies on triangulation with a mixed methods research approach which combines both qualitative and quantitative analysis. The qualitative work provides depth to the analysis. It is used to compare with the proposed model in an attempt to provide a more complete picture of the investigated phenomenon. The quantitative work tests the hypotheses and indicates generalizability of the results. It consists of descriptive analysis, factor analysis and regression analysis. Both logistic and multiple regression were conducted in this research. The third part of the research is concerned with the analysis of empirical results presented in four chapters. Chapter 7 deals with a small scale content analysis on travel agents’ websites to measure the evolution of services provided on these sites over a period of two years. Chapter 8 includes details of the qualitative work conducted in this research which consisted of 12 in-depth interviews with travel agents in Egypt and provided a basis for triangulating the findings from the quantitative analysis. Chapter 9 includes the descriptive analysis of the data as well as the reliability and validity tests on the measurement instrument. Chapter 10 presents the findings and the interpretations of the hypotheses testing. The contribution of this research is a synthesis of Roger’s innovation adoption model with the Resource-based View of the firm (RBV) to produce a revised conceptualisation for the adoption of innovations which is empirically tested for developing country SMEs in the context of tourism in Egypt. The key findings of this research are that management factors are important for the initial adoption decision by firms whereas marketing capabilities are important for more sophisticated adoption. As for perceived innovation attributes, relative advantage and complexity were found important for the initial adoption decision whereas perceived risk was found important for more sophisticated adoptions. This suggests that different factors affect the different levels of adoption. The main contributions of this research to theory are: first,-innovation attributes are not the whole story when studying firms’ adoption of the web, firm resources also affect firms’ adoption decision. Second,-different factors affect different levels of adoption thus when studying innovation adoption by firms, it is important to consider the adoption process as a continuous process that consists of different levels rather than a dichotomous process of adopt vs. non-adopt. The main contribution at the context level is that this is the first research to be conducted in Egypt which represents an important extension to the Web adoption studies that focused largely on developed countries. Additionally, the results of this research can be transferable to countries that share similarities with Egypt and may also be of relevance to SMEs in other sectors in Egypt as will be explained later.

Differences in the toughness of competition are likely to be one of the major determinants of the large dispersion in productivity, costs and output prices across firms even within narrowly defined sectors and geographical markets. This dissertation examines how increase in the intensity of international competition affects productivity and other performance measures: at the firm, industry, and geographical market levels. The dissertation combines three empirical studies of three distinct types of changes in the competition environment. The first empirical study investigates the effects of the changes in foreign competition in the form of entry of multinational firms on the total factor productivity growth, innovation and the ways of knowledge-sourcing by incumbent firms. The analysis is based on firm-level panel data from Estonia. I use an instrumental variables approach to identify the effects. Notably, I find no significant short-term effects on productivity growth of incumbents. However, I find that the entry of multinational firms is associated with increase in innovation activities of incumbents and knowledge sourcing from other firms. The second empirical study investigates the effects of entry and market structure on output price distribution across firms within spatially differentiated markets. Recent heterogeneous-producer models of competition and trade outline new effects how tougher competition affects across-firm price, productivity and cost distributions in the same sector and market. This chapter tests the implications of these models based on a case study of the European airline sector and a unique airfare dataset. I find some confirmation to the prediction that in more competitive environments, there will be less output price dispersion across firms. The third essay studies the effects of liberalisation and changes in entry costs on performance of the aviation sector. I use an event study of the enlargement of the European Union (EU) and the Single European Aviation Market in 2004 and employ difference-in-differences and synthetic control methods to study their effects on volume of airline passengers.

The services advertising literature has called for additional studies of the type of tangible cues and advertising appeal that reduce the intangibility of services. This research proposes that the display of service attributes, as tangible cues, that consumers can easily link to personal values in services advertising messages may enable consumers to mentally visualise a service’s benefits, and thus facilitate the evaluation process. The study draws on principles of the means-end chain and Berry and Clark’s (1986) recommendations for tangibilising services during advertising. Together these perspectives lead to the proposition that advertising messages reflecting important personal values enhance perceptions of tangibility (visualisation strategy) and lead to more positive consumer attitudes. Financial services were chosen as the service category because they are characterised by a high degree of intangibility. In an experimental study involving fictitious bank ads resembling magazine advertisements, participants were allocated to one of eight treatment groups created by manipulating type of product, type of appeal and type of service provider. A total of 468 questionnaires were collected, and tests were carried out using multivariate analysis of covariance and structural equation modelling. Findings supported the proposed conceptualisation, indicating that when consumers are able to make means-end linkages between physical representations of tangible cues and personal values satisfied by the service, there is a positive impact on perceived tangibility, attitude towards the advertisement and attitude towards the brand. The main theoretical contribution of this research to the knowledge base is that the study demonstrated that perceived tangibility and advertising effectiveness were enhanced by activating personal values important to consumers, which facilitate consumers’ visualisation and evaluation of service-related benefits. Understanding how consumers mentally linked the different means-end elements stimulated from tangible cues in advertisements will help managers of service firms develop more effective advertising strategies to create the desired brand image.

CEE workplace modernisation involves local managers implementing Western HRM practices supported by managerial learning. Effectiveness of transfer in post-1989 transition has been questioned in a view of legacy of socialism. This study explores local managers’ values-based reactions to transfer of practices in FDI and non-FDI companies in Poland between 2005 and 2008. It combines institutional and managerial learning approaches to examine transfer of practices. It compares the effects of neo-liberal, managerial-learning-emerging values, with the effects of external pressures of transition, socialism and historical- experience-based traditional values. The study uses qualitative case study method. The thesis is divided into seven chapters, with Chapter 1 on the research question and the conceptual framework. Chapter 2 reviews organisational-level themes in literature, and Chapter 3 - contextual themes. Chapter 4 describes the study’s case study methodology based on semi-structured interviews, observations and documents. Chapters 5 to 7 include findings, discussion and conclusions. The study’s conclusions are that the effect of managerial learning is ambivalent and limited, because of effect of values. Individualism and competitiveness of HRM contrast with misattributed-to-socialism regional identity traits of egalitarianism and collectivism. In managerial learning, behavioural and cognitive change created unintended consequences of self-interest and passivity, thus becoming moderating factors. A mix of pre-existing and emerging values produces variation in reactions. Local managers’ support and institutionalisation of practices is limited because: - a) a small number of managers create distorted practices with negative outcomes for practice participants; b) a limited number of managers participate in transfer, or develop customised practices. The theoretical contribution of the study is an extension of managerial learning theory, and a proposed typology of variation in reactions. The contribution to management practice is empirical evidence for effectiveness of negotiated approach to transfer. On a wider level, the study contributes to a deeper understanding of CEE workplace modernisation.

This thesis begins by questioning the applicability of Western concepts and measures of workplace bullying to the Far East culture. Facing such an issue, the thesis aims to address the role of culture on workplace bullying by examining the emic and etic dimensions and developing an indigenous bullying scale. By emic was meant culturally specific dimension while by etic was meant culturally neutral dimension. Three studies were conducted which illustrated the emic and etic dimensions of workplace bullying. The first study was based on a questionnaire survey with 50 Korean and 43 UK employees and showed the extent of cultural differences in the employees’ concepts of and attitudes towards workplace bullying. Based upon these results, the qualitative part of the second study developed an indigenous bullying questionnaire (KBAQ: Korean Bullying Acts Questionnaire) through a repertory grid with 42 Korean participants. Then, the quantitative part of the study tested employees’ agreement of the KBAQ items being examples of bullying using a questionnaire survey with 76 Korean and 75 UK participants. Finally, the third study conducted a questionnaire survey utilising KBAQ and NAQ-R (Negative Acts Questionnaire-Revised). 193 Korean and 167 UK employees participated. The study highlighted cultural differences in the descriptive aspects of workplace bullying such as the prevalence rate, bully/perpetrator status, health outputs (e.g., job satisfaction and work-related burnout) and predictors (e.g., leadership style, role conflict, and interpersonal conflict). The results also evidenced the validity and reliability of KBAQ and revealed that KBAQ had a greater applicability for Korean employees and NAQ-R for UK employees. The consistent findings of cultural differences suggest the need for an indigenous approach in examining workplace bullying. This thesis makes a significant contribution to the literature on workplace bullying in the Far East and provides the ground for the advancement of the indigenous approach to workplace bullying research.